The exhibition ‘godless, TIMELESS, GODWINESSS,’ by Godwin Cutajar and supported by the Gozo Cultural Council and the Ministry for Gozo, is currently taking place at the Banca Giuratale foyer in Victoria, Gozo.

The main theme of this exhibition is one horizontal painting at the centre of the hall. This painting has no upper, lower, left or right sides and so can be viewed from an infinite variety of perspectives with dramatic foreshortenings and deformations. A mirror underneath, a bottle and drinking glasses with white wine on top of the painting create reflection, refraction, deformation and “serial vision” phenomena thus increasing the viewpoint potential giving the painting a timeless spirit.

This painting is Cutajar’s nude deformed self portrait, dated 2013. Cutajar began this relationship with his self portraits about twenty five years ago when he used to portray himself from a mirror in his small lodging room during his artifact conservation and restoration studies in Rome (1988-1993).

From these works were born the “godwinNU” collection of nude self portrait designs (1990-1993), the “Garden of Eden self portraits” and “the multiple self portraits” paintings series (2012-2013). To this day, for his self portraits Cutajar still uses the very same mirror he used in Rome.

In this exhibition Cutajar has left the exhibition hall practically empty to echo a sense of sweet and sour solitude which is his faithful lifetime companion. Besides creative solitude his only other love is painting, shown by bare canvases lining the exhibition walls. The bottle and drinking glasses with wine evoke his desire to live through his successes and failures.

Located on the side of the hall Cutajar is exhibiting another nude self portrait dated 2014. These two paintings are transgressive and thought provoking as in them Cutajar does not content himself to be in nude but goes beyond and with a sense of hedonism shows off even his genitals.

Asked why he used the term “godless” in the title, he bluntly replies with the italian saying “a volte l’artista dalla fame perde la vista.”

Cutajar was born in 1965 in Fontana Gozo, where he has spent most of his life working in his quiet studio, living his motto “Ora et Colora” (from latin, “pray and paint colourfully”).

As Cutajar has mixed colours for almost half a century, in this exhibition he is proudly using the pseudonym Bruno Blue.

The exhibition which will run till Sunday, the 16th of February, was inaugurated with a performance by Cutajar himself.

Permalink: ‘godless, TIMELESS, GODWINESSS’ – Exhibition in Gozo by Godwin Cutajar